Suffragettes

The Suffragettes were members of militant women's organizations in the United Kingdom who, from 10 October 1903 to August 1914, launched a campaign of both nonviolent and violent resistance against the British government with the goal of pressuring it to introduce female suffrage and give voting rights to women.

Background
Victorian women's lives were restricted, but vital strides towards improving their rights were made in the 1800s. In Victorian times, poorer women sought paid work, while better-off women focused on nurturing home and family. Women had no vote, and before 1883 could not even retain their own property once married.

In 1866, a group of women petitioned John Stuart Mill, Liberal MP and supporter of women's rights, to push for female suffrage, but his amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill was defeated. From the 1860s, barrister Richard Pankhurst, who married Emmeline Goulden in 1879, drafted early women's rights bills, but the government always blocked voting reforms. In 1888, Annie Besant organized the matchgirls' strike at Bryant & May's facotry in London's East End; it won better pay and recognition of the health risks to workers. The next year, the Pankhursts founded the Women's Franchise League, winning some local voting rights for married women. In 1897, Millicent Fawcett helped form the more moderate National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

History
As the 20th century began, women were increasingly making their presence felt in society, especially in higher education and some professions, although a continuation of Victorian values meant women still had no vote, vital for true progress. Despite some support in Parliament for female suffrage (extending the franchise to women), many men still thought the murky, boisterous business of politics too complex and indelicate for the female mind and constitution. Male-dominated medical opinion at the time often painted women as emotionally unstable, incapable of reasoned decision-making on weighty matters. There were even women who agreed - in 1908, novelist Humphry Ward founded the National Anti-Suffrage League. The word "suffragette" seems to have been coined sarcastically by the Daily Mail in an article on 10 January 1906. After this, the term suffragette tended to be used for someone taking militant action.

Fighting the fight
Angered by the blocking of reform bills, politically active middle-class socialist Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) and daughter Christabel (1880-1958) set up the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903, adopting the slogan "Votes for Women". At first, their campaigning was fairly moderate. Meetings were held and pamphlets were handed out in the street. Gradually, they gathered enormous support from women around the country. In 1905, after Christabel was arrested and imprisoned for assaulting a policeman attempting to remove her from an election meeting for being disruptive, the campaign gathered militancy. At the end of 1906, 21 suffragettes were in prison. By 1911, after the Parliamentary campaign failed yet again, militancy moved far beyond rallies and demonstrations. Suffragettes chained themselves to railings, poured acid on golf courses, invaded Downing Street, and, in March 1912, smashed windows across London's West End and Knightsbridge. Emmeline was establishing a reputation as a highly skilled, rousing orator. In a speech at the Albert Hall, London on 17 October 1912, she declared: "I say to the Government: You have not dared to take the leaders of Ulster for their incitement to rebellion. Take me if you dare." Militant suffragettes in prison resorted to hunger strikes as a protest, and attempted to resist force-feeding as a way to get their message across. Meanwhile, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies continued a more moderate campaign, and had more than 50,000 members by 1913.

The Cat and Mouse Act
People were deeply shocked by the imprisonment and force-feeding, especially at a time when women were still considered by many to be fragile creatures. H.H. Asquith's Liberal government deicded they must tackle the hunger-striking issue decisively. In 1913, they passed an Act nicknamed the "Cat and Mouse Act", which released suffragettes prior to the desperate stage where force-feeding might become necessary, and then re-imprisoned them again when their health had recovered. The year saw a crescendo of extreme action. Emmeline was detained in New York while fundraising there, and there was an attempt to blow up Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George's house. Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was killed after throwing herself under the King's horse at the Derby on 4 June 1913. Thousands packed London's streets for her funeral procession. Also that year, Sylvia (1882-1960), another one of Emmeline's daughters, formed the East London Federation, which organized marches through London.

By 1914, society was becoming more horrified at seeing women involved in these actions. Politicians were nervous, especially with an election imminent, although this made the suffragettes hopeful that something might finally be done. In another dramatic protest, Mary Richardson slashed Velazquez's Rokeby Venus painting in the National Gallery. then, with female suffrage still unresolved, World War I broke out. The issue passed into a kind of limbo.

Aftermath
The Great War would prove a watershed in the battle for female enfranchisement, and the 1920s saw equal voting rights for all. At the outbreak of war, all imprisoned suffragettes were released. Emmeline campaigned to recruit women for the war effort. Many were impressed by how well women filled the roles of absent men and this helped change attitudes further. In 1918, women over 30 gained the vote (men could vote at 21), but it was debatable whether it was the militant or the moderate approach that had been the key to success. In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. All women over 21 finally got the vote in June 1928, a few weeks short of Emmeline's death.